SUPPORTING ONE-TO-ONE COMMUNITY BASED MENTORING FOR CHILDREN OF
INCARCERATED PARENTS

WHEREAS, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 7.3
million children have a parent under some form of correctional
supervision. Statistics show that 70% of these children, or 5
million, will become involved with the criminal justice system.
More than 2 million children in the U.S. have a parent in state
or federal prison - an increase from 500,000 in 1991; and

WHEREAS, the Child Welfare League estimates that children of
incarcerated parents are three to six times more likely to
exhibit violent or serious delinquent behavior and if the mother
was arrested youth are at a greater risk to be arrested two or
more times as juveniles. In addition, 40-75% of youth who are
arrested for delinquent behavior and/or have “conduct disorder”
are arrested in adulthood; and

WHEREAS, long term generational effects of a social structure in
which imprisonment is the norm have significant outcomes on
families. While their parents are in prison, the children might
live with a grandparent, aunt, their other parent, or in a
foster home or other facility. These caregivers are likely to
be living in poverty and to lack the personal resources
necessary to meet the children’s needs. In addition, the
children may experience a complex mix of anger, sadness, shame,
guilt, and depression. As a result, they often act out
inappropriately and have classroom behavior difficulties and low
academic performance; and

WHEREAS, the Amachi program helps to reduce the chances of
children of incarcerated parents going to jail themselves
through one-to-one community based mentoring, modeled after Big
Brothers Big Sisters. Studies show that mentoring by a caring
and supportive adult significantly reduces a young person’s
initiation of drug and alcohol use, improves their school
performance and attendance, and reduces incidences of violence;
and

WHEREAS, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, although
men still are almost 15 times more likely than women to be
incarcerated, between June 2003 and June 2004 the female inmate
population rose 2.9% as compare to 2.0% for the male population.
The Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents estimates that
incarcerated mothers are likely to have incarcerated fathers, thus increasing the risk that their children will have both
parents in prison and reside in foster care; and

WHEREAS, cities and counties across the nation are absorbing the
economic cost of incarceration. Without adequate support
mechanisms, children of prisoners are highly likely to go to
prison at a rate of 70% that has direct economic consequences;
and

WHEREAS, President Bush, in his 2003 State of the Union address,
proposed spending $150 million on mentoring children of prisoner
programs to reduce the chances of incarceration among this
invisible population. To date, the Department of Health and
Human Services has allocated $60 million to fund 221 mentoring
children of prisoner programs nationally, many of which are
working with faith and community based organizations.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that The U.S. Conference of
Mayors supports efforts to mentor children of incarcerated
parents in the proven one-to-one community based mentoring model
in partnership with faith-based organizations; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The U.S. Conference of Mayors
supports providing federal support to both state and local
governments in a way that encourages and strengthens increased
mentoring children of prisoners coordination among state and
local government agencies and non-governmental service
providers, including faith and community-based providers; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The U.S. Conference of Mayors
supports establishing appropriate processes to ensure both state
and local governments are on equal footing in developing
collaborative partnerships at the state and local level on
mentoring children of prisoners, including adequate
representation and input of local governments; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that The U.S. Conference of Mayors
supports exploring the elimination of counter-productive
barriers which impede successful mentoring children of prisoners
programs; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The U.S. Conference of Mayors
supports efforts to educate and train mayors, city-designated
faith-based liaisons, and other public servants on how to best
engage faith and community leaders, particularly focusing on
efforts which target effective mentoring children of prisoner
programs; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The U.S. Conference of Mayors will
convene and spearhead a broader effort through its Mayors Center
for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to create a National
Mentoring Children of Prisoners Consortium comprised of several
national public interest groups, community advocacy
associations, faith and religious leaders, city governments,
universities and other experts representative of the Children of
Prisoners field to do the following in a broad based national
manner: 1) educational and media outreach; 2) technical
assistance to help localities implement Best Practice models; 3)
information exchange and dissemination; and 4) advocacy and
policy outreach on children of prisoner issues.